Too many for any good they do!
“We are not protecting people by incarcerating,” she said. “We are protecting a system, a system that harms people.” Perhaps, Sup. Pellebon, it is your system that harms people! The Wisconsin State Journal reports:
The Dane County Board of Supervisors weighed three options for the new jail during its meeting Thursday night: the smaller, five-story jail; borrowing an extra $10 million for a six-story, roughly $166 million jail it approved in March that went millions over budget by the summer; and putting a ballot referendum to voters in November asking if they supported the $10 million. Each of those possibilities failed, making it unclear what the future of the project could even look like. Due to rising construction costs, the new jail continues to grow tens of millions of dollars over its original budget.
Dane County has been twisting its curls over this issue for the last 20 years! No issue on the county level is more pressing than the safety of its citizens, not discounting the humane treatment of jail inmates. (No, Sheriff Barrett, they are not “residents.”)
When brother Mike Blaska chaired the County Board from 1992 to 1996, it authorized building the current Public Safety Building with two additional empty floors that could be built up as the inmate population increased with the county’s growing population. Good liberal Rick Phelps, then county executive, vetoed those additional floors and the structure was not built to accomodate any additions. In those four years, the conservative county board also built the Expo Center, Monona Terrace, and the agriculture/conservation center — as well as additions to Vilas Zoo and the airport. With an evenly divided board a few years later, we built the courthouse.
‘Most dysfunctional!’
Former mayor Dave is appropriately apoplectic: “I used to think that the most dysfunctional local public body in Madison was its school board. But now the Dane County Board is challenging them for the title. Last night the board, yet again, couldn’t show any leadership.”
What everybody can agree on is the idea that the old jail on the top floors of the City County Building, designed and built in the 1950’s, is dangerous and inhumane and that the Huber Center out on the Alliant Center parking lot has far outlived its usefulness.
Too many of the 37 supervisors have bought into the big progressive lie that law enforcement is targeting minority races while allowing white murderers, armed robbers, and rapists to walk free. Or that cops are arresting black people for spitting on the sidewalk. We ask: how many more GPS ankle bracelets can we issue? This suspect didn’t recharge his and is arrested for attempted homicide.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Can’t leave Joe Parisi off the hook. A strong county executive could knock heads together on the board. Maybe it is “the system” after all — but not like Pellebon thinks.
The Blaska Werkes is now prepared to reverse years of official policy: 37 supervisors are too damned many! The average voter has no idea who their supervisor is; the news media and other watchdogs can barely keep track of them, so how can they be held accountable? County boards in California average 5 supervisors. We think 19, elected to staggered two-year terms (no more than 10 in any election), is about right for Dane County.
How did YOUR supervisor vote?
(That’s the point!)
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
I actually agree with the vote.
Why you might ask? Bails are so low and judges so lenient, hardly anyone is incarcerated in the Dane County jail.
Now if we actually were keeping people i nail then I hold my nose and pay for my property tax increase.
Til then….
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Silence Dogood ignorantly wrote…
That is a defeatist attitude and it enables the wacko woke to continue to destroy the justice system, gain traction, and gain political power.
In my opinion; you are morally and ethically wrong for supporting this nonsense with a rationalization like that.
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There is truth in this. I would also ask how many inmates are there due to the nanny state, i.e., people who are only harming themselves? At some point it is more productive for everyone to just let these people destroy themselves.
Madison as a city is an over-indulgent mother and there is no father in sight. Much like certain “communities”, is it any wonder that chaos reigns? Spare the rod and spoil the child right? I think Madison has not seen a rod since at least the early 70s. Even a wet noodle would be an improvement at this point.
Maybe Kaleem Caire’s school will be “1 square mile of reality surrounded by Madison”.
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As politicians make decisions that keep costing the tax payers years later and are never held accountable. I remember the county sales tax that was going to pay for the new jail(public safety building). Long after it has been paid for the tax is still here.
Depending on what happens in the November elections jail space might not be needed. Someone said Madison is working at being Milwaukee.
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How much $$ has been collected via sales tax after the jail was payed off and what did the County squander it on?
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The State of Wisconsin raised the sales tax once to pay off a budget deficit. It never went down. When politicians say a tax is temporary they are lying!
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What did the County squander it on? There’s only so much room on this blog. Ever notice how elected officials move at warp speed when it comes to squandering (i.e., funding unproven harebrained schemes concocted by “experts”) but tie themselves in Gordian knots when it comes to spending (i.e., disbursement of funds for the public good)?
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Some of it went to building bike paths and jogging trails around gotch’s house. He said he loves them too.
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The 75 year-old illiterate Blogge Idiot has less_than_nothing to say, yet still stumbles/bumbles/mumbles through a monumentally embarrassing slobbering?
Priceless!
The Gotch
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Like I have said before. Find a plot of land. Purchase it for a fair price. Install a barbed wire fence around it with a gate to enter it. Use non-violent offenders to construct barracks and other facilities to the same specs that our military uses to house our military personal. House the new prisoners there.
Let the non-violent offenders learn from the trades people how to frame in a building, install new floors, install the plumbing, the roofing and so on so that they could get jobs on the outside when they finish their terms. Hell, if I were in a position to do so, I for one would hire some of them on the spot if they were a good enough worker and showed a determination to turn their lives around. It may not keep them from finishing their term but it would be a promise of a bright future once they got out.
Simple solution to a simple problem.
Like my father used to say: Why make it so hard when it is so easy?
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You make total sense, why they would never listen to the ones who pays for it.
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Another diversion project? Who thinks these folks would rather work than sling and consume dope?
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When exactly did the Dane County Board, the MMSD Board, and the Madison City Council start morphing from entities designed to facilitate the public good into arenas of virtue-signaling performance art?
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I don’t know exactly. The last normal city council member was voted out the last election. You can’t get regular people to run because they know they will be called every name in the woke book. Ask David B.
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Stop expecting it to make any sense whatsoever; it will all of a sudden and at once make Perfect Sense!
The Gotch
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The Dane County Board is pathetic. I expect nothing out of that bunch of liberal loons, other than irresponsible spending (which doesn’t include money for the jail).
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“We will take America without firing a shot …. We will BURY YOU! We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism. We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.” attributed to N. Khrushchev
This is what despicable Lefty rodentia have been affecting.
Unequivocally confirming this is the RAYcist UNCONSITUTIONAL/ILLEGAL/DISCRIMINATORY Employment Policy with which the Minneapolis Teachers Federation and their despicable Lefty enablers are perfectly fine
Time_To_Start_Shooting_BACK!
The Gotch
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Do you ever get the feeling that we are living in a dystopian world that is headed for “A Clockwork Orange” world at an ever increasing speed?
I am old enough to remember moving out of Newark N.J. on the day of the Newark riots. From my seat on the airplane I saw the National Guardsmen patrolling the streets with their M-1 rifles with bayonets attached.
The following year while living right outside of Chicago I saw the 68 riots where then Mayor Daley ordered the Chicago Police Department to shoot to kill or detain anyone who was attempting to commit arson.
Click to access april%2015.pdf
In consideration of the past, I have to ask: Do you want to live in a polite civil society where every good person tries as much as possible to get along with everyone else or do you want to live in a “Clockwork Orange” society where it will take a strong man to make the society safe enough for the average person to walk the streets?
If we allow a “Clockwork Orange” society to come about we will surely have to give the police the power to take away the rights we all treasure in common.
In my opinion what the Dane County board has done is made the decision that it is better to have the “catch and release” system that we already have in place instead of jailing the bad guys. This is only helping to increase the speed on which we will enter into the “Clockwork Orange” world.
My final questions would be: Is this the best way to serve the public interest? Is this the best way to protect the innocent?
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